Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/910,937

POTENTIAL RESOURCE AVAILABILITY INDICATION FOR MULTI-MODAL APPLICATIONS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 09, 2024
Priority
Oct 11, 2023 — provisional 63/589,527
Examiner
ALI, SYED
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Lenovo (United States) Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
11m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allowance Rate
453 granted / 548 resolved
+22.7% vs TC avg
Strong +58% interview lift
Without
With
+58.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
23 currently pending
Career history
570
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.7%
-34.3% vs TC avg
§103
51.5%
+11.5% vs TC avg
§102
29.8%
-10.2% vs TC avg
§112
6.8%
-33.2% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 548 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This action is in response to the application filed on October 09, 2024 Claims 1-20 are under examination. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/22/2025 and 03/24/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action: A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention. Claims 1 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG et al (US 2024/0107526 A1) in view of SRIDHARAN et al. (US 20210/352527 A1). As per Claim 1 Zhang teaches a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to: receive downlink control information (DCI) including an indication of potential uplink resource availability in a set of future uplink slots (Paragraph 0153, 0154 the UE receives the DCI and transmits the PUSCH based on time domain resources indicated by the DCI. For example, a timing parameter K2 may be used to represent a time interval between the PUSCH scheduled by the DCI and the PDCCH carrying the DCI, and K2 may be in units of slots. example, the UE receives the DCI and receives the PDSCH based on time domain resources indicated by the DCI. ); and when uplink data for a logical channel of a logical channel group (LCG) becomes available to a medium access control (MAC) entity of the UE, perform buffer status reporting and scheduling request operations for the uplink data based on the DCI indication (Paragraph 0145, 0244, 0281 The transmitting of the first PUSCH and/or the PUCCH including the UCI may include: The DCI indicates at least one of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field. Examples of the signal transferring methods may include signal transferring methods for transferring information via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) signaling, or a Medium Access Control (MAC-CE) Control Element (CE).The transmitting of the information for scheduling transmission of the first PUSCH includes transmitting downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling the first PUSCH Generating a first MAC PDU for the first transport block based on data in one or more logical channels (LCs) or logical channel groups (LCGs), and for example, generating the MAC PDU or determining the data of the MAC PDU, if data in a buffer status report (BSR) is not 0 or there is data (e.g., data available for uplink transmission) for any logic channel (LC) or logic channel group (LCG). Transmitting only the first transport block in the first PUSCH in case that all of the one or more LCs or all of the one or more LCGs have no data available for transmission after the first MAC PDU is generated. The UE generates another MAC PDU or determines data of another MAC PDU) . However Zhang does not explicitly disclose a set of future uplink slots SRIDHARAN disclose a set of future uplink slots (Paragraph 0089, 0109 the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), a configured grant (CG), or a radio. The new scale factor S may be used until an explicit deactivation is received. The base station 402 may also dynamically activate or deactivate the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots. Upon deactivation, the UE 404 may revert to determining the size of the TB not based on the scale factor S. However, the base station 402 may store (e.g., buffer) bits of the first slot and, when the base station 402 receives the subsequent slots, the base station 402 may perform soft or symbol combining to decode the payload included therein, e.g., according to the RV cycling with which the bits are encoded in the sequence of slots. ). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang with the teachings of Sridharan in order to the make the system more efficient. Because the base station 402 may also dynamically activate or deactivate the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots. (see Sridharan Paragraph 0089). As per Claim 2 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to, when performing the buffer status reporting operations: trigger a buffer status report (BSR) and constructing a corresponding BSR MAC control element (MAC-CE); and determine whether to transmit the MAC-CE in the next available slot or delay the transmission of the MAC-CE (Paragraph 0145, 0244, 0249 After generating the MAC PDU or determining the data of the MAC PDU, if data in a buffer status report (BSR) is not 0 or there is data (e.g., data available for uplink transmission) for any logic channel (LC) or logic channel group (LCG), the UE generates another MAC PDU or determines data of another MAC PDU. Examples of the signal transferring methods may include signal transferring methods for transferring information via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) signaling, or a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE). Additionally or alternatively, after generating the MAC PDU or determining the data of the MAC PDU, if the data for the BSR is 0 or there is no data (e.g., data available for transmission) for any logic channel (LC) or logic channel group (LCG), the UE does not generate another MAC PDU, and transmits only one TB in the scheduled PUSCH, e.g., a TB corresponding to the generated MAC PDU. In this way, the transmission power of the UE can be reduced and the interference to other channels can be reduced.). However Zhang does not explicitly disclose a set of future uplink slots SRIDHARAN disclose a set of future uplink slots (Paragraph 0089, 0109 the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), a configured grant (CG), or a radio. The new scale factor S may be used until an explicit deactivation is received. The base station 402 may also dynamically activate or deactivate the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots. Upon deactivation, the UE 404 may revert to determining the size of the TB not based on the scale factor S. The UE 404 may be configured to determine the scale value S and determine a modified TB size for uplink transmission when the number of RBs assigned to a UE 404 is below a predefined RB threshold value. ). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang with the teachings of Sridharan in order to the make the system more efficient. Because the base station 402 may also dynamically activate or deactivate the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots. (see Sridharan Paragraph 0089). As per Claim 3 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to delay the transmission of the MAC-CE when the indication indicates a potential uplink resource availability in the set of future uplink slots is larger than a threshold value (Paragraph 0145, 0122, 0160 wireless signal receiver which have no transmitting capability, but also devices with receiving and transmitting hardware which can carry out bidirectional communication on a bidirectional communication link the first control signaling may be control signaling transmitted by the first transceiving node to the second transceiving node. the UE is included in the PDSCH transmitted by the base station. It should be noted that the higher layer signaling is higher layer signaling compared with physical layer signaling, and the higher layer signaling may include RRC signaling and/or a MAC CE.. ). However Zhang does not explicitly disclose a set of future uplink slots SRIDHARAN disclose a set of future uplink slots (Paragraph 0089, 0090 the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), a configured grant (CG), or a radio. The new scale factor S may be used until an explicit deactivation is received. The base station 402 may also dynamically activate or deactivate the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots. Upon deactivation, the UE 404 may revert to determining the size of the TB not based on the scale factor S. The UE 404 may be configured to determine the scale value S and determine a modified TB size for uplink transmission when the number of RBs assigned to a UE 404 is below a predefined RB threshold value. ). As per Claim 4 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 3, wherein the delay of the transmission of the MAC-CE has a maximum time limit, and the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to transmit the MAC-CE before or when the maximum time limit is reached (Paragraph 0061, 0145, 0181, the maximum value of the number of non-overlapping valid PDSCHs in the downlink slot is 2. At this time, the Type-1 HARQ-ACK codebook may need to feed back HARQ-ACK information for two PDSCHs in the downlink slot on the serving cell. The Serial-to-Parallel block 265 converts the time domain baseband signal into a parallel time domain signal. The Size N FFT block 270 performs an FFT algorithm to generate N parallel frequency-domain signals. The Parallel-to-Serial block 275 converts the parallel frequency-domain signal into a sequence of modulated data symbols. The channel decoding and demodulation block 280 demodulates and decodes the modulated symbols to recover the original input data stream. Examples of the signal transferring methods may include signal transferring methods for transferring information via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) signaling, or a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE). ). However Zhang does not explicitly disclose a set of future uplink slots SRIDHARAN disclose a set of future uplink slots (Paragraph 0089, 0090, 0109 the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), a configured grant (CG), or a radio. The new scale factor S may be used until an explicit deactivation is received. The base station 402 may also dynamically activate or deactivate the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots. Upon deactivation, the UE 404 may revert to determining the size of the TB not based on the scale factor S. The UE 404 may be configured to determine the scale value S and determine a modified TB size for uplink transmission when the number of RBs assigned to a UE 404 is below a predefined RB threshold value. ). As per Claim 5 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to transmit the MAC-CE when the indication indicates a potential uplink resource availability in the set of future uplink slots is larger than a threshold value, and the MAC-CE includes a field indicating how long resource allocation in response to the BSR can be delayed (Paragraph 0145, examples of the signal transferring methods may include signal transferring methods for transferring information via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) signaling, or a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE). ). As per Claim 6 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the buffer status reporting and scheduling request operations include: triggering a BSR; and determining whether to trigger a scheduling request when Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH) resources available for a new transmission do not meet logical channel prioritization (LCP) mapping restrictions configured for a logical channel that triggered the BSR (Paragraph 0255, 0314, the UE generates two MAC PDUs, in which data of a BSR (or logical channel) may be uniformly mapped. The method is simple to implement, a method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes determining whether uplink control information (UCI) is multiplexed in a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) including more than one transport block (TB). As per Claim 7 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine not to trigger a schedule request when the DCI indication indicates that a potential uplink resource availability in the set of future uplink slots is larger than a threshold value (Paragraph 0151, 0153 a time interval between the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI and the PDCCH carrying the DCI, and K0 may be in units of slots. For example, FIG. 6A gives an example in which K0=1. Referring to FIG. 6A, the time interval from the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI to the PDCCH carrying the DCI is one slot. In an embodiment of the disclosure, “a UE receives a DCI” may mean that “the UE detects the DCI.” The downlink control signaling may include a DCI carried by a PDCCH and/or control signaling carried by a PDSCH. For example, the DCI may be used to schedule transmission of a PUSCH or reception of a PDSCH. Some examples of uplink transmission timing will be described below with reference to FIGS. 6A to 6C. ). However Zhang does not explicitly disclose a set of future uplink slots SRIDHARAN disclose a set of future uplink slots (Paragraph 0089, 0090, 0109 the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), a configured grant (CG), or a radio. The new scale factor S may be used until an explicit deactivation is received. The base station 402 may also dynamically activate or deactivate the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots. Upon deactivation, the UE 404 may revert to determining the size of the TB not based on the scale factor S. Uplink transmission when the number of RBs assigned to a UE 404 is below a predefined RB threshold value. The UE 404 may be configured to determine the scale value S and determine a modified TB size for uplink transmission when the assigned MCS has a modulation order below a predefined RB threshold value (e.g. restrict its use to only MCS with QPSK modulation). ). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang with the teachings of Sridharan in order to the make the system more efficient. Because the base station 402 may also dynamically activate or deactivate the UE 404 to determine the scale factor S and use the scale factor S for a set number of subsequent uplink communication slots. (see Sridharan Paragraph 0089). As per Claim 8 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the DCI has a group common format (Paragraph 0151, 0168 A multicast PDSCH may be a PDSCH received by more than one UE simultaneously, and the scrambling of the multicast PDSCH may be based on a UE-group common RNTI. For example, the downlink control signaling may include a DCI carried by a PDCCH and/or control signaling carried by a PDSCH. For example, the DCI may be used to schedule transmission of a PUSCH or reception of a PDSCH. The UE-group common RNTI for scrambling the multicast PDSCH may include an RNTI (which may be referred to as Group RNTI (G-RNTI) in embodiments of the disclosure) for scrambling of a dynamically scheduled multicast transmission (e.g., PDSCH)). As per Claim 9 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to only perform buffer status reporting and scheduling request operations for the uplink data based on the DCI indication when the DCI indication is received by greater than a threshold amount of time from the next uplink slot available for BSR reporting (Paragraph 0243, the UE may receive a DCI format to schedule a PUSCH including N (for example, N is an integer greater than 1, such as 2) CWs or TBs, and an NDI of each CW is toggled compared with an NDI indicated by a previous DCI format scheduling a PUSCH of the same HARQ process. generating the MAC PDU or determining the data of the MAC PDU, if the data for the BSR is 0 or there is no data (e.g., data available for transmission) for any logic channel (LC) or logic channel group (LCG), At this time, each TB in the PUSCH scheduled by the DCI format is an initial transmission. It may be specified by protocols and/or configured by higher layer parameters to adopt at least one of manners MN6˜MN8 to generate a MAC PDU.). As per Claim 10 Zhang-Sridhran teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the DCI has format 2_0 (Paragraph 0157, 0169, 0185 an example, if the UE receives a DCI format that indicates SPS PDSCH release (deactivation), the UE transmits HARQ-ACK information (ACK) for the DCI format. HARQ-ACK may be HARQ-ACK for a SPS PDSCH reception (e.g., HARQ-ACK not indicated by a DCI) and/or HARQ-ACK indicated by a DCI format (e.g., HARQ-ACK for a PDSCH reception scheduled by a DCI format). The second DAI may be included in the downlink DCI format and/or an uplink DCI format. The second DAI included in the uplink DCI format is also referred to as UL DAI. ). Claims 11– 20 are an apparatus and methods claims corresponding to the user equipment claims 1 – 10 that have been rejected above. Applicant attention is directed to the rejection of claims 1 – 10. Claims 11 – 20 are rejected under the same rational as claims 1 – 10. Examiner’s Note Examiner is open for discussion if the applicant’s representative need further clarifications. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. (See form 892). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SYED ALI whose telephone number is (571)270-3681. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10am to 2pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ASAD NAWAZ can be reached on (571) 272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /SYED ALI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Oct 09, 2024
Application Filed
Sep 24, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
83%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+58.2%)
2y 11m (~11m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 548 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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